While work in hydraulics at WSU dates to at least the early 19-oughts, in the 1950s WSC began working with scale models of dams and water channels, initially built either outdoors or in Quonset huts. The R.L. Albrook Hydraulics Laboratory building was initially built in 1955, with a succession of additions over the next 12 years, and was best known for the use of these dam models to test current / water flow, and to determine best practices for construction and use of those dams. Numerous other projects were conducted there, including research for NASA on use of water for noise reduction in the space program in the 1960s. The buildings offices were emptied in 2022, but research continued to be conducted there afterwards.
The materials consist of correspondence, reports, and data from research conducted or collected by the R.L. Albrook Hydraulics Laboratory at Washington State University, and its affiliated personnel. The bulk of the materials comes from the late 1970s to mid 1990s.
The Laboratory contracted to conduct hydrological research or observations for various organizations. One common methodology was to conduct actual scale models of dams and water channels for pre-construction analysis, and most of the dam-related materials come from that model work. Other materials, such as the Teton Dam failure materials or some of the Pullman photographs or water data, come from observations in the field.
Items are organized alphabetically, either by the location of the project, or by a title when there is no specific location. Where a project or location has multiple folders, those folders are generally ordered chronologically within that project.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions apply.
[Item description]
Washington State University Albrook Hydraulics Laboratory Research Files, 1957-1996 (Archives 410)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Dar Neunherz of the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture donated this collection to the Washington State University Libraries on January 28, 2022, where it was retained as (UA 2022-15). The materials had been stored in the Albrook building over the years, but the building’s offices were being closed and these materials not retained.
University Archivist Mark O’English processed this collection in April of 2023. Approximately 16 boxes of materials were initially dropped off at MASC, but after extensive review, most of that was discarded. A huge chunk of the discarded materials were proposals for projects which never happened, materials originating outside WSU, and published research reports which were available elsewhere and so surplussed. Two boxes of maps were also included, some of which were retained for eventual processing under the same UA 2022-15 identification.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.